WAUSAU - A Wausau family will feel a little warmer this winter after winning a free furnace through the Heat Up Wisconsin program.

Dan Hackbarth found the contest in a local advertisement, so he thought he would apply and see how he could do.

It's a Lennox program that provides free installations of high-efficiency gas furnaces for people and families in need.

Hackbarth describes his tough times.

"I kind of put down that two years ago I lost my job and then the following year I lost both of my parents," Hackbarth said. "They had been helping me out quite a bit because a loss of job means loss of income too."

The Hackbarths old furnace was more than 50 years old.

Their son Zachary, 1st grade, is excited for the upgrade.

"I think its awesome," Zachary said. "We think its going to be nice and cozy, we think its going to be awesome."

The Heat Up Wisconsin program stretches from Wisconsin to Minnesota, as well as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Individual Lennox dealers select from applicants in their area. They then decide which person is in the most need from their stories.

More than 300 families have received free furnaces since the program started in 2010.

RHINELANDER - Some people call the Northwoods home, but one Northwoods woman calls Africa her home.

Twenty-year-old Tanya Whittaker grew up doing missionary work with her family in Sekanani, Kenya. The village is about six to eight hours from the capital city of Nairobi. Since she was two, she helped her father, a Northwoods native, and her mother, from Germany, serve the small community, building structures and teaching Christianity.

EAGLE RIVER - Ken Schels, the owner of KMS, a custom wood and metal shop in Eagle River, makes pieces to honor his family's past as well as nature itself. His family was one of the pioneer families in Eagle River. That's how he came to appreciate all that the forest has to give.

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